Strategy and management

If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change. So wrote Sicilian author Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa in his most famous work, The Leopard. With the legal industry in a state of flux, today’s law firm leaders would do well to consider the tale of fictional Sicilian nobleman Don Fabrizio Corbera and his struggle to survive in the face of intense social change, says lawyer and law firm consultant Bruce MacEwen.

The partnership is the pinnacle of the traditional law firm pyramid, but as lateral hires become more frequent, and millennials show a lack of interest in the partner role, Fernando Peláez-Pier led a discussion that asked whether it’s time for a rethink.

Law firm strategy is more likely to succeed if it is backed by a culture empowering employees to carry it out. Jaime Fernández Madero led a discussion about whether new cultures emphasising collaboration and learning are a reality or just wishful thinking.

Carlos José Santos da Silva, president of Brazilian law firm association CESA and partner at Machado Meyer Advogados, tells Luís Bulcão Pinheiro about a joint project between some of Brazil’s leading firms and São Paulo’s University Presbiteriana Mackenzie to address the lack of racial diversity in corporate law firms

The Big Four, the commoditisation of legal services and encroaching global firms are threats keeping managing partners from Mexico City to Rio de Janeiro up at night. At a roundtable in San José, partners told Tom Muskett-Ford why firms in Central America, the most integrated market in Latin America, can face off some of those threats with a new wave of consolidation, which could see them expand beyond Central America’s borders to stay ahead of the competition.